In the fourth year of the Qin Dynasty, the autumnal equinox occurred.
There were huge crowds of people on both sides of the Wei River, and a large number of Qin troops were stationed on both sides. More Guizhou leaders looked through the sergeants at the large altar that was offering sacrifices to the king of the Wei River.
These days, there are no TVs or mobile phones. It is really not easy to meet the king.
Ying Zheng on the altar, wearing a crown, finished reciting the memorial text expressionlessly, and then solemnly threw him into the rolling Wei River.
Seeing this scene, Li Si under the altar immediately signaled the flag bearers around him to wave the flag.
On the largest ship in the fleet on the Weishui River, Li Yunze saw the flags dancing on the shore and nodded to the water ghosts around him.
After a short while, a black figure, more than ten feet long, appeared and disappeared on the turbulent Wei River.
The trustees who had been arranged among the crowd in advance immediately shouted, "Look, the black dragon has responded to the king's call. Look, there is a black dragon~~~"
At this time, the Wei River was very wide. Because there were not many reservoirs and other water conservancy facilities, and the water consumption was not as terrible as in later generations, the widest part of the river was even as high as hundreds of feet.
Many Guizhou leaders on both sides of the Taiwan Strait also saw the black figure tumbling in the Wei River. For a moment, the noise resounded in the sky, and some people even bowed and worshiped in awe.
Especially when the huge dragon head burst out of the water, there was almost an explosion of noise on both sides.
Ying Zheng on the altar looked at the excited people through the beads (beads) hanging from his crown, but what he was thinking in his heart was, "It's so ignorant. There is no magic black dragon. It's just the application of mathematics, physics and chemistry."
That’s all, this is the power of science!”
If you don't believe in gods, don't seek immortality... At least now, Ying Zheng, who doesn't believe in immortals, feels unprecedented pride in his heart.
You don’t understand what few people understand. This is the power of knowledge!
The appearance of the black dragon in the Wei River directly elevated Qin King Yingzheng to the altar.
The people of Qin all believed that their king was favored by God, and even the black dragon could be summoned anytime and anywhere.
In modern terminology, it’s ‘Dawangniubi~~~’
A King of Qin who is not superstitious but believes in mathematics, physics and chemistry is an unsolvable existence in this era.
The worship of the Wei River is not without reason. The reason is that after several years of famine, the Qin Dynasty finally got a rare harvest this year.
During spring plowing, thanks to the large number of tame cattle and the use of curved-wheel plows, the people of Qin burned down large tracts of forests, drained many swamps and lakes, and reclaimed many new fields.
The common people used a large number of columbuses, deep plowing and deep planting, and combined with the use of chemical fertilizers and water conservancy, the corn grew well during the growing season.
During the autumn harvest, thanks to the improvement in steel production and quality, the people of Qin were able to use sickles for harvesting on a large scale, and the efficiency was greatly enhanced. The end result was that they harvested much more food than in previous years.
With food in hand, the Qin State finally began to send troops to the east.
King Yingzheng of Qin worshiped General Meng Ao as a general and led his troops to attack the Wei state that killed Lord Xinling.
The Qin State that sent troops this time not only brought tens of thousands of new cavalry, but also transported twelve King Qin cannons!
With the blessing of King Qin's great ritual weapon, Meng Ao's offensive was nothing short of overwhelming.
Those Wei troops who did not dare to fight in the field with Qin and chose to hide in the city to defend the city were in bad luck.
More than 20 cities, including Suanzao City, Yan City, Xu City, Taoren City, and Yongqiu City, had their walls blown open amidst the roar of the Qin King's ritual vessels, mourning that they had fallen into the hands of the Qin army.
Ying Zheng set up this large area of newly acquired land as a new county, named Dongjun.
If you are not familiar with place names, just know that this is the Puyang area of Jiaozuo.
After this battle, the already declining Wei State suffered a devastating blow, and its national power declined to the point where it was on par with South Korea.
Such a defeating performance really put the soldiers of the Wei Dynasty to shame.
There was no way, the Wei State was rampant during the period of Wei Wuzu, and later it fell into internal disputes and generations of faint kings.
Just like in order to seize power, the King of Wei knew that Lord Xinling Wei Wuji was the last famous general of Wei, but he still had to force him to death.
Without the commander-in-chief of famous generals, without external assistance, and even unable to defend the city, the decline of the Wei State was a matter of course.
During this battle, Qin's great ritual weapons attracted great attention from all countries, and countless spies were sent to Qin to gather relevant information.
It's just that the Qin people did a good job in this regard. Even under the system, most of the spies were captured before they could even reach Xianyang City.
The only one who really knows a little bit about the details is the State of Yan.
After Prince Dan learned about Wei's experience, he was also worried.
He knew very clearly that once the Qin army took Dagui to the Yan Kingdom, no city could withstand it!
Prince Dan secretly vowed, “We must find a way!”
When Xianyang City was turbulent in the dark, Li Yunze was teaching Ying Zheng.
"You have already learned about the frame structure. Today we will focus on bearings..."
"Bearings have a very important application, and that is steering structures..."
"The most important application of the steering structure is the new carriage."
Li Yunze brought Ying Zheng to the warehouse, stretched out his hand to indicate the frame and chassis in front of him, "This is the core component of the four-wheeled carriage."
Carriages have been around for a long time, but they only have two wheels.
Compared with two-wheeled carriages, four-wheeled carriages are not only more stable, but can also carry greater weight.
There is no doubt that this is an advancement in technology.
Ying Zheng walked around the frame and chassis with great interest, asking about the parts one by one, and combined the knowledge he had learned to understand its principles.
The next step is to arrange for people to assemble the entire carriage, then hitch the packhorses and drag it forward.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Seeing the four-wheeled carriage loaded with a large amount of goods traveling quickly and flexibly changing direction to move, Ying Zheng was overjoyed, "In this case, it will be transported to the front line."
The efficiency of grain and grass will be greatly increased."
"Yes, that's it."
Li Yunze did not mention the role of four-wheeled carriages in the civilian transportation field, because Ying Zheng was most concerned about the military field.
In fact, even during World War I, four-wheeled carriages were still the most important transportation force in the army.
"This wheel..."
Ying Zheng carefully looked at the width of the wheels and said with a slight doubt, "It seems wider than the wheels of a two-wheeled carriage."
"That's right."
Li Yunze on the side explained, "A wider contact area helps maintain stability. In fact, I also want to wrap a layer of gum on the outside of the wheel, but the output is too low."
Gum is somewhat similar to rubber, but the output is far less than that of rubber.
In addition to gums, there are some herbs that can also produce gums, but they all have the same problem, with low yields and low quality.
As for going to South America to find rubber trees... Judging from the navigation technology of this era, it would be better to wait until the Qin State destroyed Chu and conquered South Vietnam, and Li Yunze shipped a batch directly from the modern world.
Ying Zheng asked again, "Is it the same as the current track of Da Qin?"
Li Yunze immediately shook his head, "It's much wider, mainly to be able to carry more cargo."
After writing the same article, Li Yunze began to arrange for the trains to be on the same track.
The so-called "same track" refers to the condensation and arrangement of tracks with originally different widths into the same standard.
Trains can travel quickly only if they have tracks, but tracks did not appear after trains.
In fact, during the Warring States Period, rails were widely used.
Basically, many countries have built many roads to connect cities to transport supplies.
A large number of horse-drawn carriages drive on the road all year round. After repeated rolling, the original dirt road is crushed into two hard lanes with the same width as the wheels.
As long as the carriages transporting supplies keep their wheels on the hard road, they can achieve smoothness, which can significantly reduce animal power consumption and axle wear, just like modern vehicles walking on asphalt roads.
These two hard tracks are the tracks of this era.
The distance between carriage wheels in different countries is different, so the width of the rolled tracks is naturally different.
When Qin went abroad to fight, he suffered greatly.
Because of the different widths of the wheels, Qin's carriage wheels could not ride on the tracks of other countries, seriously affecting the ability to transport materials.
After all, they are all dirt roads. After wind and rain, except for the two hardened tracks, all other roads are deemed to be scrapped and cannot be used.
In order to solve this problem, the people of Qin built their own tracks, using wood to build transport tracks similar to modern train tracks.
Even, in order to maintain stability, sleepers were laid under the wooden track!
It cannot be said that it is exactly the same as the modern train track, it can only be said that it is almost inseparable.
"Your Majesty, how effective is this four-wheeled carriage?"
"very good."
"How does it compare to the previous two-wheeled carriage?"
“Better than that.”
Li Yunze finally expressed his thoughts, "If that's the case, then use the wheel width of this four-wheeled carriage as the quota and change the track standards all over the world to be the same. How about the same track from now on?"
Ying Zheng nodded, thinking what Li Yunze said was very reasonable.
Li Yunze hasn't finished what he said here: "Wherever the Qin army goes in the future, standard tracks will be built. Especially in the Western Regions, they will be built along the Qilian Mountains all the way to the Tianshan Mountains. They can quickly mobilize supplies and personnel all the way to the west!"
Ying Zheng also agreed with Li Yunze's strategic proposition of heading west.
He also wants to be what Li Yunze said, a golf captain.
However, instead of fighting to the west, Ying Zheng wanted to destroy the Kwantung kingdoms first.
It is beneficial for Qin to have cars on the same track, because now Qin basically sends troops to fight in other countries, so it quickly gained approval and support.
As for track standards, there is some controversy.
The reason is very simple. The tracks in the Qin State are now built with the wheel distance of a two-wheeled carriage. If it is changed to a four-wheeled carriage, it means that all the tracks will have to be rebuilt.
This is an extremely huge project.
At this time, Ying Zheng showed his courage.
He expressed his position: "Using two-wheeled carriages now saves energy, but the benefits of four-wheeled carriages are greater. For the long-term plan in the future, we must change!"
With Ying Zheng's support and Zhao Ji's seal of approval, the car-to-rail issue was finally approved.
It is obvious that the Qin people's corvee service will increase again.
The so-called corvee means bringing your own dry food to work for the country for free. There is no doubt that it is a kind of tyranny.
It's just that this is the case in this era, there is nothing we can do about it.
Li Yunze also made an effort, that is, promoting brick-making.
Using bricks to repair tracks can save a lot of work and trouble.
Similarly, the large-scale use of bricks has a huge role in promoting city construction and housing construction.
While the Qin Dynasty was busy building brick kilns in various places and reorganizing its track, the Guandong countries who paid close attention to the Qin State also successively created their own Dagui.
The problem is that their Dagui ritual vessel is really just a ritual vessel because there is no gunpowder!